Irresistible!

On a recent visit to a local Farm Shop I came across a basket of china dishes for sale.

Closer inspection revealed this stamped on the lips at each end.

 And this message stamped on the inside.

I have no idea what these were for or, indeed, what the Patchwork products referred to in the inside are or were, but, really, I couldn't not buy one now could I??

Owl Notebook Cover

If you are looking for the Sew Sweetness Bag pattern Giveaway, you will find the post here
The Giveaway closes Sunday 24th February 12.00 p.m. GMT so you have plenty of time to put yourself in the running for a pack of fabulous bag patterns!

Now that I know my partner has received her package I can show you the Owl Notebook cover that was part of my Friendship Bag Swap package.

I really enjoyed putting this together and fortunately my partner likes it too!

The notebook was a small pocket notebook purchased in the local supermarket and the paper-piecing pattern for the owl is available here. Any 3" block or paper-piecing pattern could be substituted for the owl if owls are not your thing!

To make the notebook cover in addition to these two supplies you will need two small beads for the owl eyes, although you could also stitch the eyes if this was intended for a child, and scraps of fabric for the cover and border and a piece of fabric twice the width of the notebook plus 5" x the height of the notebook plus 1" for the lining.

Using your paper-piecing pattern create the Owl front for your cover.

Add borders to your block in the background fabric to make the block equal 2x the width of the front cover of the notebook plus 5". Make sure that your paper-pieced block is centred on the right-hand half of the block allowing for the overlap.

Add border strips to the top and bottom of your block to make the block equal the height of the notebook, again centering the owl.

Add beads for the eyes or cross-stitch eyes instead.

Cut your lining fabric to match the dimensions of this block.

Add a 1.25" border strip in contrasting fabric to the top and bottom of your cover block.

Right sides together pin and stitch the lining fabric to the top and bottom edges of the notebook cover.

Press the lined block centering the lining and notebook cover to create a contrast border on the top and bottom edges of the lining and outer cover.

Pin and stitch one side edge together, then repeat for the other edge but leave a gap to turn the cover right sides out.

Turn notebook cover right sides out through the gap and slip stitch the gap closed. Press.

Centering the paper-pieced block on the front cover fold the excess cover at each end to the inside of the notebook. Pin folded fabric to the front and back of the cover at the top and bottom edges. Remove the notebook from the cover and slip stitch the inner folded fabric to the outer cover using matching thread at both top and bottom edges.

Slip book into cover and you are finished!

Linking up to TGIFF! which is hosted today by Gingersnaps Quilts, Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and LAFF.

Don't forget too if you have tried something new this month that the February link up of

will be up and running on Monday, 25th!

Sneak peeks

Although I have been busy ticking off projects this weekend, I have very little that I can actually show at this time, so instead I will content myself with sharing some sneak peeks!

We visited a local Vintage and Collectors fair at the weekend, where I picked up some (as it turned out essential!) sewing supplies.

I can never resist a button bargain and at 20p for the packet, they were definitely a bargain!

I had a vague idea of using the vintage buckles in a handbag and as it turned out they were used much quicker than I thought they would be.

The smallest of the three I bought was the perfect fit as a slider on an adjustable strap, which was just waiting for supplies to be delivered for finishing. Serendipity indeed :)

Having signed up for The Littlest Thistle's Everything but the Kitchen Sink SAL and not made any attempt to tackle the first block, when she posted the details of the second block recently I thought I had better have a go. Katy gave instructions on how to design a paper-pieced block in Word, which was definitely something I had never even known was possible. The SAL block is for mugs hanging from a mug rack, and I did manage to produce a pattern that vaguely resembles hanging mugs. I haven't gotten around to actually piecing the block yet as I was so taken with the possibilities of producing a pattern in Word that I had to have another go.

The theme for January's month's block in the Star of Africa Bee is shoes and I have had an idea in the back of my head for a while of what I would like to do, but until now not the capacity to actually do it. However, here is a sneak peek of my very first Word generated paper-piecing pattern.

Paper-piecing and zips I must be mad!

Thanks Katy for putting me right on the numbering :)

Finally here is another sneak peek of an exciting upcoming project that I have been working on with the lovely UKMUMINUSA.

I think I have teased you enough for now. Hopefully all will be revealed in the not-too distant future!

Linking up to Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-Up, which this week is at Weekend Doings.

Knitting with wire

Last weekend I took a workshop on wire knitting and yes it is as strange as it sounds!

Although I can knit I am not the most proficient so I did wonder whether I had bitten off more than I could chew. Being someone who tends to cast on stitches rather tightly I was convinced I had gone beyond my abilities when trying to knit the first row. Fortunately, the groans coming from the more experienced knitters reassured me that I wasn't the only one who was struggling, and after the first row knitting with wire did get a bit easier.

The wire used is 0.5mm and for this size I cast on 26sts and knitted 6 rows adding a bead every other stitch on alternate rows. As with knitting with wool and beads, the beads are threaded onto the wire before the knitting is started. I used 39  beads in this bracelet.

 To make the bracelet you need to roll the knitted piece back on itself (or in on itself if you want the beads encased) and then "sew" the raw edges together with more wire. The end caps have jump rings looped through with wire that is then secured to the end of the bracelet.

Next time I will definitely cast on the stitches more loosely, but apart from that it was all pretty straightforward, if a little sore on the fingers!

Once my fingers have recovered I will definitely have another go at this, it was quick to do and I would like to think that I will get neater and quicker with practise, but then again maybe not :)

As far as sewing goes I have been paper-piecing away to get a block finished for Quiet Play's Just my Type quilt. My allocated word was Comfort and I could certainly have done with some of that after the wire knitting.

The letter blocks came together really easily and apart from the self-inflicted error of a mark (chocolate??) on the white of an O block, which had to then be replaced,  it was a joy to do from start to finish.


So this is what my WIP list looks like now

• In Color Order HST BOM - Top Completed
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted
• Tsatime quilt pieced, backed and basted COMPLETED
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 14 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (way behind schedule) 
• Sunday Morning Quilt Bee blocks completed and sent (ahead of schedule!)
• Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (on schedule just!)
• Friendship Bag Swap - Bag made ready to be filled
• Modern Scrappy Bits Swap 3rd Round signed up
• Triple Zip A Long pouch  COMPLETED
• Curved Seams Challenge signed up COMPLETED
• And And Sew On BOM - first block completed
• Just my Type paper-pieced block  COMPLETED
• Everything but the Kitchen Sink SAL - no progress

I have pulled out my Craftsy BOM blocks and even printed out the instructions for the remaining blocks so, who knows, maybe it will see some movement soon.

Hope you have had a productive week.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and WOW

A steep learning curve!

Thanks to all your encouragement I have now managed to complete my project for the Curved Seams Challenge. You were all of course right, stepping away from it was just what I needed. So, one not-so quick, trip to the cinema to see Les Miserables was exactly the right tonic to inspire me to knuckle down and get this off my WIP list.

I appliqued the Orange Peel blocks to a plain background and then had a think about what I was actually going to do with this. My initial thought was to make it a tablecloth, then I decided to make it reversible, just to make that deadline tomorrow even more unlikely!

When cutting out the centre blocks I had several melon shapes of the blue floral left, so they became a flower centre for the back of the tablecloth.

The centre of the flower itself is a yo-yo from a scrap of the brown used on the front. As you can see there is no wadding added as I didn't want the thickness of wadding for the tablecloth, so the front and back were simply stitched together right sides facing and then turned right side out and topstitched.

My husband was pressed into service to hold the top up as it is far too windy today for a photograph. Upon hearing that it was destined to become a tablecloth for the garden table, he has claimed this for himself as the perfect cover-up when he is sleeping (sorry reading!) in the garden on a sunny day. So it looks like I have lost my tablecloth already!

Now that I have this WIP off the list I can make a start on another one. The Triple Zip A Long kicked off on Monday, but I have been putting off starting until this Curved Seams challenge was finished. I ordered several zips from ZipIt thinking they would take a couple of weeks to get here, but they were really speedy delivering them so they actually arrived on the first day of the ZAL. How is that for service?

My fabrics are now cut and I am ready to join in with the ZAL.

Three zips in one pouch should definitely knock on the head any lingering difficulties with inserting zips, well that is the plan anyway!

So here is how my WIP list is looking now.

So my WIP list currently looks like this

• In Color Order HST BOM - Top Completed
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted
• Tsatime quilt pieced, backed and basted COMPLETED
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 14 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (way behind schedule) 
• Sunday Morning Quilt Bee blocks completed and sent (ahead of schedule!)
• Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (on schedule just!)
• Friendship Bag Swap signed up and partner details received
• Modern Scrappy Bits Swap 3rd Round signed up
• Curved Seams Challenge signed up COMPLETED
• And Sew On BOM - first block completed
• Everything but the Kitchen Sink SAL - no progress

Hope you have had a productive week too.


If you have tried something New to You this month and haven't already linked up to

there is still time, the link party does not close until tomorrow. You can link up here and if you haven't tried anything new but would like to try something New to You then check out the great links already posted, craft bloggers are a really inspiring bunch!

Linking up to WOW and  WIP Wednesday

Friendship Stars and Free Motion Quilting

My faithful sewing machine does not know what has hit it these last few days, not content with making buttonholes and trying out machine embroidery on the Dresden Sunflower cushion, I have been trying out another new (for me) function of the machine.

The Time for Tea quilt was backed and basted but I have been putting off doing anything about the quilting as I know what I would like to do - teacups in the border - but don't know how to achieve it. Never having attempted any quilting other than straight line and echo quilting, it is a big leap to contemplate fancy motifs, even if this is only a lap-size quilt. I did, however, have the 4 spare Friendship Star blocks as a result of my shockingly bad maths, so now had the opportunity to play with them.

Bordered with another dotty fabric from the Sunny Happy Skies line, then backed and basted the quilt square was ready to be practised upon. Beforehand though, I checked out Leah Day's video tutorials on Free Motion Quilting, to help with the machine set up, as the machine manual was sadly lacking in this respect! Armed with this knowledge, I set to.

What fun! How tense! Oh dear! Not so bad! All ran through my head in the space of a few seconds, whilst also trying to remind myself to breath and relax my shoulders. I have new found respect for the FMQ experts abounding in blogland, their hand-eye co-ordination is amazing :)

It wasn't perfect by any means, but when I got the hang of moving the quilt sandwich evenly my FMQ stitches even began to look quite respectable in places! In other places, not such a good result, but it was good fun. I think it will be a while before I am rattling off dancing teacups, but at least I can add another new technique to my mental list of things tried.

I didn't get too carried away though the Friendship Stars were echo quilted first, before I tried out the meandering loops on the dotty borders!

Having seen the photo of the cushion I am now regretting using two such similar prints for the bottom-right star, as I don't think the star stands out as much as it could do, but as these were spare blocks anyway I shall just chalk it up to experience.

Fortunately, the Friendship Stars in the quilt itself are better balanced.

Last weekend we visited a Coin and Collectors Fair here in Riga. The stalls were mainly geared to Coin, Stamp and Postcard collectors but there were a few other interesting items to be found.

 These medal ribbons were a glorious jumble of colour in the midst of all the military paraphernalia

And these Christmas Decorations seemed very out of place on a baking hot day! Not that there has been that many of these this summer in Riga.

Have a great weekend.

Linking up to TGIFF

Time for tea

This week I have been enjoying working on want to rather than need to projects. So the pressure has been off me, which is just as well as the husband has had a really pressured week and there in only room in the household for one person under pressure at a time!

Today I have finished the top of my afternoon tea quilt that I started many moons ago, and has been gathering dust wrapped up in a map roll on top of the wardrobe ever since. As the quilt was intended to make use of an embroidered panel there was no pattern for the top, so I had drafted out the cutting and sewing measurements myself. Although I knew maths was never a strong point of mine, until today I hadn't realised quite how bad I was! According to my calculations I needed 28 6.5" blocks for the second border on the quilt, so I duly cut and pieced 24 Friendship Star blocks with the intention of making 4 different blocks for the corners. When I laid out the quilt centre and pieced Star blocks I discovered that my calculations had been way out, instead of needing 28 blocks in fact I only needed 20! So out with the seam ripper to take off the extra 2 blocks on 2 strips.

The dodgy maths mean though that I have 4 Friendship Star blocks ready to make up into a matching cushion, so it wasn't all bad.

I would love to be a bit more adventurous with the quilting on this lap quilt and ideally, quilt some form of teacup in the striped border and on the linen centre, but that may just be a bit over-ambitious as I have never even tried free-motion quilting! All tips will be much appreciated.

Last weekend there was a large pan-Baltic Folklore festival in Riga, part of which was a Craft Fair and open-air concerts in one of the City parks. I was delighted to see these girls with their flower headdresses working on their looms and thought you might like to see them too.

And just to prove that all you need is attitude to carry off the flower wreath look!

Have a great weekend.



Linking here and here

Three down, twenty-one to go!

This weekend I decided to forget all of the commitments I have signed myself up for and spend some time working on a project that is just for me. I started my Time for Tea quilt a while ago to make use of a piece of embroidery that had been gathering dust in the cupboard. The first border has been attached for a while and the 2.5" squares for the Friendship Stars I had planned for the second border have been cut for ages too, so this weekend I decided was the right time to make some more progress.

I discovered when I started marking the squares for HST's that I had been too generous in my cutting and had twice as many squares for the triangles as I needed, so I only needed to mark, sew and cut 96 squares! Still, there is a quilt in the Sunday Morning Quilts book that I would like to make sometime that uses leftover triangles, over 500 of them (!), so at least now I have the start of a triangle stash :)

Ignoring the rising heat and then thunderstorms around me, I determinedly ploughed on with the sewing and cutting to produce 72 pieced strips for the blocks.

The fabric is Sunny Happy Skies by Riley Blake and is rightly named, because they are such cheerful fabrics. I had time, just, before the Men's Championship Final at Wimbledon kicked off to get a couple of Friendship Stars sewn up too.

So, progress has been made, but as the title says only 3 down, 21 to go!

Whilst watching Wimbledon my latest project from Made in France, Cross -stitch in Red, white and blue was the particularly apt strawberry pattern. I stitched it on a small hand towel that I bought in a textile factory outlet in Estonia on our last trip there. Fortunately being one colour the pattern was not too complicated as I couldn't have coped with the anxiety of watching Andy Murray's gallant performance and a complex cross-stitch pattern!

Hope you have all had a productive weekend too.

This week's posts on the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop are from

July 10

    Jenelle from Echinops and Aster  

    Julie from Bedsheet in the Kitchen

July 12

    Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade 

    Marti from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks

Rebecca has a Christmas in July event going on at the moment, so if you want to be more organised this year (or in my case just organised) be sure to check out her blog! 

 

Linking up to Manic Monday

A jumble of June projects

I am beginning to like putting together a Mosaic at the end of each month, when I think I haven't actually finished much in a month it is a pleasant surprise to find that, actually, I have been busier than I thought!

The makes this month are a motley selection, and probably a good indication of my "butterfly" tendencies of flitting from one project to another :)

Lots of little projects have fitted in with the travelling we have been doing recently, so portable projects like the crochet flowers and Dorset buttons have fitted the bill. I am most pleased with finishing the Campervan doorstop as it has been many months in the making, it is just a pity that the reason for making it, for youngest son's flat at University, has now disappeared with his graduation a couple of weeks ago! Still, a finish is a finish.

We have no travel plans for the next few weeks, so I am hoping to get stuck into some bigger projects and maybe even finish off the NY Beauty QAL blocks that are haunting the cupboard!

If you have missed any posts in the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop check out the great tutorials here This week's posts in the Blog Hop will be from:

July 3

Di from Willowbeck Designs

Jennifer from Knotted Thread

July 5

Sarah from Sarah Lou

Catherine from Knotted Cotton

 

I have seen sneak peeks of a couple of the projects being lined up and can't wait to see them revealed in all their glory. My post for the Blog Hop is due at the end of the month so I need to get cracking on my post and project for that too, so the NYB blocks might not see the light of day after all :)

Linking up to Fresh Sewing Day

.

Cakes, Cards and Cherries

A few weeks ago I signed up for the Novelty and Colors Layer Cake Swap organised by Hilachas where we signed up to send in 12 Layer Cake cuts of a novelty fabric and the same amount of a pre-allocated solid (or a fabric that reads solid) and received in return 24 different Layer Cake cuts back. Well, because I had a bit of indecision about whether my chosen fabrics were suitable or not I ended up sending two lots of each, and so received 48 Layer Cake cuts in the post yesterday!

Here are the Solids I received

And here are the Novelty Layer Cakes. I am delighted with the variety of fabrics I received and can't wait to use them in some of the upcoming Zakka-style SAL projects!

In an earlier post I showed you the plans for my mini for Sew Happy Geek's Play mini quilt challenge, and I am pleased to have some more progress to show on this. Having calculated and cut the pieces for the paper-pieced corners of the playing card, I set to this morning to sew the blocks.

The letter block is from Carol Doak's 300 Paper Pieced blocks book, and has been re sized from the original 3" block to 4" by 3" to fit the planned dimensions of the quilt. The observant amongst you will see that this quilt will be based upon the Ace of Diamonds card, and the really observant amongst you will notice that I am missing a Diamond block! This is why -

When supposedly trimming the last corner I managed to cut off completely the previous corner!!! That will teach me to "just fit in a bit of sewing before breakfast!". Lesson, hopefully, learnt! Next time I am cutting I will not also be working out all the things that I have to do that day.

Having bored you all with my less than stellar attempts at crochet, I am sure you will be as pleased as I am (well maybe not!) that at long last, I have a crochet post that isn't cataloguing my mistakes or pleading for help. Determined that I will master this crochet business, I found a pattern for a Cherry Brooch in an old copy of Making magazine. The pattern was designated for beginners, so couldn't be too taxing I thought, and lo and behold! it wasn't and here is the proof - my very first successful crochet project!

So on that successful  note here is my round-up for this week.

Completed projects

• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart, Orange and Reindeer cushions 
• Orphan Block needle roll, Pieced Arc Tea towel, Purse and Padded Hangers Tutorial
• Sunflower and Sew Happy QAL quilts
• All blocks of FPPFTT   
• First crochet project! 

Ongoing 

• 3 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM (2 blocks behind schedule) 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted 
• 4 Zakka-style SAL projects completed (1 project behind schedule)
• First border of teatime quilt completed, blocks calculated and fabric cut
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 8 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (on schedule) 
• Play mini-quilt challenge design finalised and drafted, 3 corners pieced!
• Yellow rainbow cushion waiting to be appliqued

 
Waiting 

• Indigo and violet rainbow cushions
• Last block of Sampler quilt
• Amy Butler bag 
• Bag Making Bible Fashionista Bag 
• Dragon Bag
• Patchwork Block bag
• Christmas mini quilts

 Not much movement on that waiting list, one of these days there will be!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and Sew Much Ado We Did it Wednesday and Esther's WOW

Warsaw, New York and Japan!

Today's post has a very international flavour to it. I have finally got around to putting together some of my photos from our recent trip to Warsaw, and as you can see we had blue skies and brilliant sunshine for the whole of our time there. The sunshine was great when we were enjoying watching the passing parade with a refreshing ice-cream to hand, but not so great when we were lost trying to find the photograph exhibition at the last of the tenements in the old Ghetto!

As you can see we did eventually find the exhibition (it is the right hand photo in the bottom row), which was a montage of photographs of Polish Jews donated by survivors and neighbours from the Jewish Ghetto in WW2. The last tenement is scheduled for demolition in the next year, so we were pleased to have been able to see this exhibition in its natural installation. The Old City was similar in some ways to its equivalent in Riga, but it was an odd experience walking around an Old Town that was, in fact, rebuilt almost entirely after WW2, but looked as though it had been there for over a hundred years.

Despite some lack of activity on the paper-piecing front recently, partly due it has to be said to trips like the one above, I have managed this week to get back into my NYB QAL blocks. Only one to add to the small, but growing, pile I admit, but I have now printed off all of the rest of the templates, so the spirit is willing! Next week will be the last week of the QAL, which has been interesting and frustrating at the same time. I am delighted that I have even been able to manage half of the blocks within the time frame, but frustrated that each one takes so long to do. Despite all the time and effort put in I will have nothing more than a pile of blocks to show for it at the end, unless I make even more blocks!

And for the final part of my international post, a bit of Japanese Zakka-style! This week's project in the SAL was a small pencil case, which has had some comments about quite how small it was i.e. not long enough to hold full-size pencils! It is, however, long enough for pens so I made his and hers versions, husband's for pens, mine for chalk and vanishing ink markers. I had thought of using mine for crochet hooks, as it is the perfect size, but as I only possess one crochet hook at the moment it seemed like overkill!

They were fairly straightforward to make, although it took me two attempts to sew the final stage as I managed to get the lining on the wrong way round in the first attempt and then the pocket inside on the second! That is when you wish you hadn't used linen for the outer plain fabric as ripping out seams on linen is no joke.

It is not much of a finish I admit, but I am linking up to TGIFF anyway, as this is about all of the finishes I am going to see for a while I think.

Work but not much progress!

When I posted a photo of 4 blocks completed for the Siblings Together appeal, I didn't really plan on making very many more as I knew we were going away for a couple of days and I think I only signed up to make 4 blocks anyway. Those log-cabin style blocks, however, turned out to be quite addictive. There was always just another combination that might work and would only take a few minutes to put together! So, this is what I ended up with

I even managed to incorporate a few of the charm squares that I won in Erin's fugly fabric giveaway a few weeks ago. I think I'm finished making these blocks but maybe not and a quilt of this block is definitely in my future, but not just yet! Especially given the lack of progress on my current projects :)

The round-up does not make very rewarding reading.

Completed

• Reindeer Cushion
• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart and Orange cushions 
• Orphan Block needle roll 
• Pieced arc tea towel  
• Yo-yo maker purse 
• Padded hangers and tutorial

• Sew Happy QAL quilt 
• Sunflower Quilt (My April WIP of 12 WIP's in 2012!)
• All blocks of FPPFTT completed 

Ongoing 

• 3 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM (1 block behind schedule) 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt now basted 
• 2 Zakka-style SAL projects completed (2 projects behind schedule)
• First border of teatime quilt completed, blocks calculated and fabric cut
• 4 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed (4 blocks behind schedule)
• 8 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (on schedule) 
• Play mini-quilt challenge design almost finalised 
• Yellow rainbow cushion waiting to be appliqued

Waiting 

• Indigo and violet rainbow cushions
• Last block of Sampler quilt
• Amy Butler bag 
• Bag Making Bible Fashionista Bag 
• Dragon Bag
• Patchwork Block bag
• Christmas mini quilts 

I hope you have been having a more productive time than I have. We have a family wedding to go to later this month, so I am hoping that one of those bags will finally move from the Waiting list to the Completed list otherwise I will have nothing to carry my lipstick in!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday

Monthly Mosaic

We are just back from a trip to Warsaw and I haven't even had time to sort out the photos or write up a post, but I realised that it was still the first of the month and I had time to link up to the Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts, so rustled up a mosaic!

Apart from my Sunflower Quilt it has been a bit of a slow month I think. With a trip to Ireland for a family wedding and friends visiting from the UK in May, I fear that this month is not going to be much better. What was I thinking of signing up to Jenna's Play mini-quilt challenge, when I am already behind on the Zakka-style SAL and the NYB blocks! I am already resigned to the tardiness of my NYB blocks, but was hoping to be more organised on the Zakka-style! A forlorn hope I feel.

Hope you have more progress to show for the last month than I have!

Shopping, stitching and sighing!

I realised when looking at my photos that the only photos I have shared of the markets here were of the fish market. Now, whilst we like fish we do buy other things at the market, so this weekend on our weekly shopping trip and walk back through the Old Town I took some photos to give you an idea of the shopping opportunities in Riga!

Now that Spring has (finally) arrived many of the fruit and veg stallholders have moved outside, so the area around the Market pavilions is a riot of colour. Later in the summer small stalls will be set up with people offering produce from their gardens and allotments. Last year we particularly enjoyed the tiny wild strawberries for sale on these stalls, so we are looking forward to trying more of them this summer. The time for fur hats has, thankfully, passed so the ones you see are aimed at tourists, who were out in force this weekend, so the fur lady and her neighbours selling knitted socks and gloves and amber jewellery will have been happy. The handicraft ladies ply their wares all year round so must be a very hardy bunch!

Although it felt like I spent a lot of time sewing over the weekend I don't seem to have much to show for it. I did, however, get last week's project from the Zakka-style SAL completed.

I have been hoarding the fabric and ribbon for a while so it was nice to finally find a use for them. I didn't have the right stuffing so made do with leftover wadding, so it is a bit lumpier than I would have liked. At least, though, it is finished which is more than can be said for the first project in the book, the zig-zag style tote. Having spent what seems like all week on this tote I am still some way from finishing and the photo below shows you why!

When I joined the zig-zag panel to the plain side panels to make up the front of the tote I lost my points on the edges! I was tempted, as you can see, to ignore this and make up the bag anyway, but have decided that this is all character building so am steeling myself to start all over on the zig-zags. I have also discovered (thanks Kirsty QP) that I am not the only one to have trouble with this project, so I don't feel quite so bad :) Check out Finding Fifth's  blog if you are struggling too.

As it is nearly the end of the month I am trying to catch up on my BOM's before I get behind again, so spent again what seemed like many hours hand-piecing hexagons for the Craftsy BOM for April. One down, one to go, hope there is something good on TV this week so that I can get stuck into the second block.

I only realised as I was sewing the last one down that I had intended to have both of the half-hexagons with the blue side on the white background. At 11.00p.m it was definitely not going to be changed!

When we  were in Tallinn a few weeks ago I found a copy of the craft magazine Mollie Makes so naturally snapped it up. The magazine had a pattern for a Crochet Flower Brooch, which caught my eye as it seemed reasonably straightforward for a non-crocheter. However, despite several attempts I have to confess to coming unstuck.

I am hoping the crochet experts amongst you can explain what the following instruction means (or point me in the direction of a good tutorial) as I cannot get my head around it. The pattern says "With RS of the work facing, work in a spiral towards the centre of the base. Work into both loops of Round 4, then into the unused loops of rounds 3, 2 and then 1 of the spiral base, until you have reached the very centre." Sorry, I have no idea what this means!!

We are heading off on a trip next weekend so I was hoping to take the crochet along to do on the plane,  hopefully someone will be able to help me out.

Hope your weekend was more productive than mine.

Linking up to BOM's away here , Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday here and Manic Monday here